Ultra Violet follow up - my support email to Sony.

I wrote Sony a support email over their implementation of Ultra Violet Digital Copy. It's mostly self explanitory, this is what I emailed them, I hope they respond.

I got my daughter the full blown expensive 3D version of the Smurfs for Christmas, and I immediately attempted to claim the Ultra Violet Digital copy since the one I claimed from Universal for Cowboys and Aliens went so well, heck it's the only MPAA approved way to watch movies on Linux!

I tried setting up a Sony account, first of all the instructions send me to the Sony Rewards site that has nothing to do with Ultra Violet and I was utterly confused with how I was supposed to get my copy there. I eventually just Googled Sony Ultra Violet and the found the Ultra Violet site. I kept getting this message when I tried to create an account:

An Error Was Encountered

A system error occurred. Please try again later or contact customer support. (848ecb5f-912f-43d2-a2dc-b06bad3b837b)

I figured you got a Christmas rush on your servers and you didn't have people around to fix them so I patiently waited and tried a couple of times a day only to have that error every time I tried to create an account.

Finally on a sneaking suspicion I started up a Windows XP virtual machine on my system at home (the only commercial OS I have and it's usually reserved exclusively for client support, and only then when absolutely necessary) Using the same browser I use on all of my Linux stuff I was able to create an account. The only number inside the with the disk has nothing to do with the digital copy. I Google some more, turns out the number was on the cellophane, something completely unheard of to me before now. That was thrown out in a bag full of used tissues yesterday 300 miles from where I am now that I figured out the problem.

If your error message would simply have said "because we dislike Linux and we don't think you should use it - despite the fact we use it in many of our products" instead of (848ecb5f-912f-43d2-a2dc-b06bad3b837b) I would have been able to retrieve it once I figured out the number inside the movie box had nothing to do with the digital copy.

Could I possibly get another registration number for this movie? Also could I get you to alter your server either to allow Linux clients to register or at least to put up a hate message? All of my difficulties could have been prevented with a proper hate message.

BTW, yes, this does mean I think Universals implementation is far superior to yours. I blogged about theirs. Now I'm going to copy paste this as my follow up entry.

Sony sent me a new key, still ass-hats about OS, I can see the Smurfs movie next to my Universal movies on the UVVU website, I can play my Universal movies right there but the Smurfs requires me to go to the Sony website where instead of saying "Go away Linux hippie!" they still throw numbers at me. Here's my account of that, with screen shots!